Pet Rock
by alphaellen
Summary: While part of a team exploring a planet the moon is passing, Alan Carter inadvertantly returns to Alpha with a new life form. This story was first published in an issue of the Nick Tate Fan Club Newsletter.


Pet Rock

The embankment looked solid.  Carter walked along the edge for a dozen meters or so, looking for an easier way down to the slow moving water below.  It was about a three meter drop covered with a tangle of lush greenish yellow vegetation.  He was helping out the survey team, and had been asked to get a water sample from the nearby river.  It had sounded like an easy assignment; walk to the river, and fill a bottle of water.  It should have been much better than drilling mineral samples, which was what the rest of his team was doing.  In reality, he'd stepped in muck up to his ankles twice and walked into a vine covered with some kind of gooey sap which stuck to his clothing like bubble gum.  And now he couldn't find a path down to the water through all the vegetation.  Digging was looking like a much better occupation.

There were a half dozen teams on the surface scattered around the planet and another dozen poised to come in as soon as the advance teams found any minerals worth mining.  The planet they were passing circled a well-known variable star that flared up every hundred and fifty years then slowly cooled.  The botanists had been going crazy over the abundant plant life, eagerly looking for the various ways the plants had found to avoid dying out during the hot times.  The rest of the Alphans were trying to accept one more unsuitable planet.  The Commander was hoping that everyone would have a chance to breathe fresh air and relax a little while they searched the planet for minerals and supplies Alpha needed.  They would be within range of the planet for nearly four weeks, and had found no signs of intelligent life, or animal life on the planet.  They hadn't expected any.  Since the surface of the planet changed from scorching to freezing over a period of a hundred and fifty years, then suddenly back to scorching, they hadn't expected to find any life at all.

Now Alan was softly cursing the abundant life as he pushed his way through the brush.  Ahead he saw an open space and he pushed forward, hoping there would be some rocks he could climb down to the water below.  He pushed through the last of the bushes into a sandy area and looked down on the dark brown water.  The river here was a meandering, almost stagnant, body of water.  He could see the water more clearly from here.  It was a dark brown, the color of coffee, with a thin yellowish scum on it.  Despite the fact that it was a river, there was almost no current.  The scum appeared stationery, thickening near the plants whose branches reached down to touch the water.

He stood in a sandy gully.  It probably held water in wetter seasons.  The bank was worn away more along here, and the sand was soft, fine and crumbly when he stepped onto it.  He took two steps toward the river and felt the sand give way around him.

He relaxed and rolled reflexively in the avalanche of sand, and tumbled down the hill into the dark water below.  He shut his eyes tight against the water and held his breath, waiting until his forward motion had diminished before moving toward the surface.  He reached out, brushing against the soft bottom and rolled once more, trying to find the direction 'up'. 

He breached the surface and shook water out of hair, eyes, and ears, then cautiously put his feet down.  The water was only waist deep but his feet immediately began to sink into the fine sandy muck on the bottom, so he quickly pushed off towards shore.  He grabbed the small pack on his belt and pulled out the specimen bottle.  There was no way he was returning to the water's edge once he got out.  He filled the bottle quickly and staggered out of the water.

He took a deep breath, spitting the brown water away from his mouth and reached for his commlock.  It was dripping with a brownish yellow slime as was the rest of him.  He shook his head and made his way up the bank.  He sure hoped the water wasn't harmful to humans.  If it was, he hoped it would just do him in before John got a shot at him.  Here he was, in charge of this exploration team, violating a half dozen standard rules for landing party duty.  He sighed and slogged his way up the bank and back to the Eagle.

Andy Johnson was the first to spot him.  Andy was stripped to the waist and carrying a core sample over to the table where Molly Crandall was doing an analysis of the minerals.  There was a whole list of items Alpha needed, everything from tiranium to petroleum.  If their team found evidence of any of the needed raw materials, a crew would be on their way to mine as much as possible before the moon passed beyond Eagle range.

"What happened to you?" Andy asked in surprise.

"I decided to go for a swim," Alan growled.  There was a bitter taste on his lips.  Molly and Andy were both approaching him now.

"We need to get you inside and out of those clothes," Molly said with concern.

Alan couldn't help smiling.  He winked at her.  "You don't know how long I've waited to hear you say those words."

She sighed and shooed him into the Eagle.  "Get in there and change, Alan Carter.  You're contaminated.  If you manage not to get some kind of swamp rot and lose important parts of your anatomy I may consider saying it again."

Alan had to laugh.  He winked at her again as he entered the Eagle.  He could never stay out of sorts for long, and he'd been trying to get Molly to go out with him for quite some time.  He stripped down and used some of their own water from Alpha to wash himself off and pulled on a clean black flight suit.  He stuffed the sodden uniform in a large plastic bag and sealed it.  He did the same with his shoes, commlock and belt.  He hoped he could get this stuff clean.  Those were the most comfortable pair of shoes he had.

As he stuffed his jacket in with the rest of his uniform he felt something hard inside it.  A small oval shaped rock, shiny black like obsidian was stuck to the seam of the jacket.  He pried it off and wiped it on the least dirty part of the jacket.  He ran it through clear water and shined it on the sleeve of his flight suit.  It was a pretty little thing and he stuffed it in his pocket.

The exploration team covered two more sites and called in the mining team once.  Alan dutifully reported his unscheduled swim and upon his return he endured two days of poking and prodding in Medical Center before Helena Russell would admit that he had suffered no ill effects.  Alan pulled the rock from his pocket when he returned to his quarters and tossed it on the glass-topped coffee table.  His mind was on other things.  Molly had agreed to meet him in the solarium.

Two nights later he invited Molly to his place for coffee.  Alan scooted the rock to one side and set a ceramic tray with two mugs and a coffee pot on the table.  Molly stayed until nearly midnight.  They talked about home and the planet they'd just explored, and she'd even allowed more than one good night kiss.

The next morning when he picked up the tray to return it to the kitchen he noticed a dent in the side of the ceramic tray.  It looked like a piece had been melted off.  He didn't remember the dent from yesterday when he picked up the tray.  Most plastics on Alpha had become brittle with age and difficult to replace without petroleum.  They were recycled into needed polymers and ceramic alternatives had been found whenever possible.

The lovely red-headed Molly was taking up most of Alan's spare time and it was nearly a week before he had time to clean his small quarters.  When he moved the rock there was a slight depression in the tabletop as if the rock had sunk into the table.  He moved the rock to a shelf next to his desk and continued to clean.

Molly came for coffee again and they left early to watch a movie.  She rinsed and stacked the dishes for him and left them on his desk to be returned the next morning.  When he went to pick them up on the way to breakfast the rock was sitting on the tray.  He wondered why Molly would put the rock on the tray.  He moved it back to the shelf and returned the dishes.

Things were quiet over the next month.  The resources gathered from the planet kept most of the Alphans busy.  Just about everyone had gotten a chance to breathe some real air and spirits were high.  Alan hosted a poker night one evening and Tony brought a pitcher of his infamous beer.  Alan put the pitcher on the desk and various brave souls helped themselves.

John folded early in one hand and moved over to the desk to pour a cup of beer.  As he poured, the beer came out a hole in the bottom of the glass.  "Hey!" What's this, Alan, some kind of trick glass?"

Alan dashed for the bathroom and grabbed a towel.  He wiped up the spilled beer and poured John another glass.  He picked up the glass with the hole in it.  It looked like a  portion of the bottom of the glass had been melted.   The little rock was sitting on the tray.  He put it back on the shelf with a frown.

Bill Fraser looked up from his cards and noted Alan's action.  "What's that, Alan? Your pet rock?"

"I picked it up on that last planet."  He looked down at the tray and noticed a slight indentation in the tray, much like the one on his coffee table.  He ran his hand along the tray.

Tony trew his cards on the table.  "I fold, Bill.  It's all yours."

"I knew you'd see it my way," Fraser replied with a smile, raking chips to his edge of the table.  "Your deal, Alan."

Alan returned to the table and they continued the game.  His thoughts no longer on the rock. 

The following day he brought a coffee mug back to his quarters after diner and put the rock into it.  He could still see nothing different or unusual about the rock and he felt a bit silly, but he put the rock in the coffee mug and set it back on the shelf.  Then he headed to Molly's quarters.  She had asked him over to watch a movie with her.

He got back late, or early, rather.  It was after two when he returned to his own room and crawled into bed.

The next morning the coffee mug had a hole in the bottom of it.

Alan quickly decided he was out of his depth here.  There was more to this rock than met the eye, but he wasn't sure who to ask for help.  He considered talking to Helena, but this thing didn't appear to be alive—not exactly anyway.  Dave Riley was the resident rock specialist—but this wasn't your average rock.  Alan pulled his commlock from his belt and called Maya.  She answered quickly.

"Good morning Alan."

"Maya, could you do me a favor?" he asked.

"Certainly, Alan," she smiled and he knew she must be thinking that he wanted her help with some kind of practical joke to play on Tony.

"Can you come by my quarters before you go on duty?"

"I was just leaving my quarters.  I'll be right over."

Alan sat the rock and the mug on the coffee table and watched the rock closely.  It remained absolutely motionless, just like a rock should.   He jumped when the door buzzed, but he turned his commlock toward the door and opened it without taking his eyes away from the rock.  

Maya entered and came to sit next to him on the sofa.  He couldn't help noticing her bare knees above the beige boots she wore.  Maya was most definitely Tony's girl, but that didn't mean Alan couldn't look at her terrific legs.

"What are you looking at?" Maya asked.

Alan jumped, and blushed slightly.  Then he smiled.  "That rock," he pointed at the table.  He wasn't about to mention her knees.

"What about it?'

"It's the reason I called you," he explained, once again engrossed in the rock's odd behavior.  

She looked at the little rock with him.  "The rock?"

"Maya—it—" he couldn't quite admit what he was thinking.  "It _does things."  _

She looked at him dubiously.  "Does what?  Alan is this some kind of joke?'  She asked warily.

"No, no, it's no joke," he said hurriedly.  He picked up the coffee mug and began the explanation of the different incidences.  She ran her finger around the hole in the bottom of the mug.  It looked as if the ceramic had been melted.

"Alan?  You sound like you think it's alive."

Alan sighed.  "I sure don't want to think that."  

Everyone coming back from planet duty went through strict decontamination procedures. Plant specimens were kept in complete isolation, and if something was found to be useful, carefully introduced to other plants in their collection.  They never collected animal specimens.  It could cause too many problems.  They didn't want something to become a pest.  What about a living rock?

Maya watched the rock closely for a moment then slowly reached out, cautiously passing her hand over it first, then touching it lightly.  Alan held his breath and watched her.  They had encountered a living rock once before, but it had been large and aggressive.  Other than consuming a ceramic coffee mug and making a dent in the table, it appeared to be pretty harmless.

Maya leaned back, removing her hand from the rock.  She looked at him.  "It's completely inorganic."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, it's a rock.  That other rock creature we encountered?  It had organic parts to it.  That's why I could change into it.  This one…" she shook her head.

"So it's not alive?" he asked, feeling some relief.

"I didn't say that.  Alan, was there any debris left where you had the coffee mug sitting?'

"Debris?  From the hole in the mug?  No, none at all."

"Has it changed shape or gained weight since you've had it?"

He reached over and picked it up, hesitating only slightly.  It was a smooth polished river rock, with very few distinguishing features.  "It's still the same shape, as far as I can tell.  I don't think it has gained any weight.  But I haven't ever weighed it."

"I think that's the next step.  Let's weigh it, and put in somewhere with some glass or ceramic.  Then we'll weigh it again."

"To see if it's growing?"

"That's right.  Also, I think you'd better tell the Commander about it right away."

Alan sighed.  That was one thing he didn't want to do, but Maya was right.  If he'd brought some kind of dangerous life form onto the base, John would have to know.  He picked up the little rock and stood.  "Best to get this over with."

They found John in the cafeteria having breakfast with Helena.  Maya accompanied him and they sat at the table with the commander and the doctor.  Alan put the rock on the table.

"Your pet rock," John said with a grin.  He winked at Helena.  "Don't tell me.  It's sick and you want Helena to look at it."

"Very funny," Alan said, not laughing.  "John, I picked this up when I took that spill in the river back on the last planet.  Remember the other night when your glass had a hole in it?  We think this rock… may have… eaten it," he finished hesitantly.

"Eaten it?" Helena repeated, looking more closely at the rock.

"Yeah.  I've… placed it next to several different glass and ceramic things and they were…" he still hesitated to use the word 'eaten'.  "Missing pieces afterwards."  He pulled the coffee mug out of his pocket and placed it on the table beside the inoffensive little rock.  

John picked up the mug and looked at the hole in the bottom.  He turned it over and cautiously ran his finger around the rim of the hole.

Alan remained silent.  He knew John was thinking all the same things he had thought when it began to occur to him that it might be… alive.

How big would it get?  Would it simply grow so large it consumed the entire moon?  Instead of growing, would it possibly split apart, become many small rock creatures?  The moon was made mostly of silicon.  How could this thing be contained?  If you pulverized it, would it become a host of tiny rock creatures?

"Maya," John asked quietly.  "What's your opinion?"

"It is a life form.  One not based on carbon, but a life form nonetheless.  It will take some research to find out what effect the ceramic it is consuming will have on it."

"And what effect it might have on us?" Helena asked cautiously.

"What will you have to do to it Maya?"  Alan asked.  He tried to avoid showing any sign of affection for the rock, but he had been the one to remove it from its habitat and he felt responsible for it.  

"Nothing invasive, Alan," Maya assured him.  "Observation and measurement first."

Alan nodded.

"In quarantine?" John asked.

"Of course, Commander," Maya assured him.  "I will let you know the results as soon as possible."

John nodded and turned back to his breakfast.  Maya and Alan stood and left the cafeteria together.  As they parted in the hallway Alan said, "You'll let me know—how it's doing?"

Maya smiled and put her hand on Alan's arm.  "Of course.  I'll take good care of it.  You can drop by my lab to visit it any time you wish."

Alan nodded sheepishly.  He obviously wasn't fooling Maya and hiding his concern over the little creature.

A month passed.  They had passed another planet.  This one turned out to have a creature that nearly killed Tony while trying to communicate.  It had killed three Alphans and others who had come before the Alphans.  They had nearly been stranded there.  But they hadn't found a home.

Alan was off duty and just stepping out of the shower when the commpost alerted him that someone was at the door.  He quickly pulled on his uniform, as he looked at the viewscreen to see Maya waiting for him to open the door.  He picked up his commlock and opened the door for her.

She walked in carrying a clear plastic box.  It looked a bit like a terrarium.

"What have you got there?" he asked, stepping forward to take the heavy box from her.  "Let me help you with that."

He took the box from her and sat it on the low table in front of the sofa.  The bottom of the box held a layer of sand and an assortment of small plants.

"You don't recognize it?" Maya asked.

Alan peered into the box.  "Hey, the rock is in here."

"I've had it in my lab, observing it in some of the soil samples we brought back.  As long as there is organic matter present, it stays quite stable."

"Stable?"

"It doesn't go looking for coffee mugs to eat," Maya said with a smile.  "I talked to the commander and he said I could return it to you.  If you keep it in its container, which is plastic and tastes bad to the little thing, it should be completely harmless.  Water the plants a bit, and replace the sand as needed and your pet rock should be quite content."

"John's going to let me keep it?"

"We'll have to keep it somewhere.  I convinced him that you were the right one to look after it."

Alan looked down into the little rock's new home.  "I'm not sure whether I should thank you, or curse you."

"The commander said something similar."

He smiled.  "Yeah, he would.  Don't worry Maya.  I'll take good care of it."  He stood and placed the box on the shelf where he had previously placed the rock.  "Thanks, Maya."

Maya stood to leave.  "Just don't overfeed it."  She slipped out with a laugh.

Alan admired the terrarium.  It looked nice.  There were certainly worse things in life than having a pet rock.

June 2000


End file.
